KIRKUS REVIEW

In this seventh installment, the
sleuths from Griswold’s Grammar School unravel yet another case involving a mysterious
portal and a time-bending troublemaker.

Once again, the six young British
gumshoes find themselves in the midst of something both puzzling and strange.
As puberty looms, the group—three girls and three boys—has become divided along
gender lines. The girls begin to watch an unusual student who is always—and
somewhat anachronistically—rambling on about communists, while the boys start
investigating a malevolent trio of classmates. With the discovery of a wormhole
in their science lab and the changing of recent events, the group must converge
and figure out a way to stop the time-traveling wrongdoers from rewriting history.
As Allison’s series has progressed, the characters have aged with it, bringing
increasing complexity to each case but maintaining its whimsy and never taking
itself too seriously. Like its predecessors, this volume relates a complete
case and works well as a stand-alone, though it has enough quiet in-jokes to
reward devoted followers. Allison’s attention to detail in his characters is
playful, with an especially keen eye to his protagonists’ stylish sartorial
choices. However, those seeking diversity may be happier elsewhere; his
mainstays are nearly all white, save for one who is black.

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